Playstation 3 owners have been using Folding@Home for a while now, helping research by allowing scientists to use the power of their PS3.  But now the Folding@Home service has changed in to something new.  From today anyone going in to the option on the Home menu will get an update which downloads Life With Playstation, a news and weather channel not too dis-similar to the channels on the Wii.

This still gives the Folding@Home people access to process data on vast number of Playstation 3's but also now gives the user at home a satellite map of earth with up to date weather for major cities.  It allows you to follow cloud patterns and check the temperature from The Weather Channel as well as receiving news for the area you've chosen from google news.

"up-to-date weather information from the Weather Channel, top news headlines provided by Google news, and live web cam images via the Earth Television Network - all localized to the select city."

Hopefully as the software progresses we will be able to get more cities and more localised information from this service, but it's a nice little free gift from Sony for now.